The present disclosure relates to electrically conductive wires. The electrically conductive wires are particularly useful for long power cables, such as those used to provide electricity to deep water devices.
Subsea oil and gas wells may be located in ultra-deep water devices (depths of 1500 meters or greater, ˜5000 feet). Providing electricity to subsea devices at this depth requires suspending very long power cables from a surface location at sea to a terminal location on the sea floor. The weight of these power cables is largely borne at the end of the power cable secured to the surface location. The power cables are also affixed to riser tubing/scaffolding coming up from the sea floor to bear the weight of the cable. The need for such scaffolding can complicate the construction of the oil/gas well. In addition, the power cable will experience large tensile forces and dynamic motion during its service lifetime, for example due to movement of waves and/or ocean currents. The cable can also be exposed to torsional forces that twist the cable.
Power cables include metallic conductor wires, typically consisting of copper. These copper conductor wires generally have poor mechanical properties. In particular, the end of the conductor wire is usually not strong enough to support the weight of the remaining wire in such long power cables, resulting in failure due to various stress-related phenomena over time.
It would be desirable to develop new electrically conductive wires that have improved mechanical strength as well as other desirable properties.